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THP   COUTTTRY   CHURCH 


Volume  3 


4  3  0.30?. 

G  & 


5 


V,  3 


Federal  council  of  the  churches  of  Christ  in 
America,  What  every  church  should  know  about 
its  community. 

General  Association  of  Congregational  Churches 
of  Massachusetts  <.  Advance  reports  of  various 
committees,  1908  and  1909 

McElfresh,  F»  The  country  Sunday  school 

McFutt,  M.  B.  Modern  methods  in  the  country  church 

McITutt ,  M^  B-.  A  post-graduate  school  with  a  purr^ose 

Massachusetts  Federation  of  Churches,  Quarterly 
bulletin »  Facts  and  factors.  October  1910 
**The  part  of  the  church  in  rural  x:r ogress  as 
discussed  at  the  Amherst  Conference.** 

Root,  E*  T.  State  federations 

Taft,  A.  "B,  The  mistress  of  the  rural  manse 

Taf t ,  A.  B.  The  tent  mission 

Taylor,  G^  Basis  for  social  evangelism  with  rural 
applications 

Wells,  G.  F»  An  answer  to  the  TTew  England  country 
church  question* 

Wells,  G«  F.  V/hat  our  country  churches  need 

Wilson,  W.  H.  The  church  and  the  transient 

Wilson,  W.  H.  Conservation  of  boys 

Wilson,  W.  H.  The  country  church 

Wilson,  W.  H.  The  country  church  j^irogram 

Wilson,  W*  H.  Don't  breathe  on  the  thermometer 

Wilson,  W,  H.  The  farmers*  church  and  the  farmers* 
^  college 

CO  Wilson,  W.  IT»  Getting  the  worker  to  church 

Q_ 

w 


Wilson,  W,  H»  The  girl  on  the  farm 

U^ilson,  W«  H»  How  to  manage  a  country  life 
institute 

Wilson,  ?/.  IK  "Marrying  the  land." 

Wilson,  W.  H»  ITo  need  to  "be  i^oor  in  the  country 

Wilson,  W.  H.  Synod's  ox:)portunity 

Wilson,  W«  H-  What  limits  the  rural  Evangel 


9  4   9   D  9 


The  church  and  country  life.  Pamphlet  issued 
hy  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church. 


THE    REGISTER  23 

BASIS  FOR  SOCIAL  EVANGELISM  WITH  RURAL 
APPLICATIONS. 

By  Graham  Tayloe. 

The  church  of  any  faith  is  primarily  inspirer,  interpreter 
and  mediator.  As  such,  it  stands  in  between  four  pairs  of 
things  vital  to  every  individual  and  every  community. 

1.  First  of  all,  standing  between  what  ought  to  be  and 
what  is,  between  the  ideal  and  the  actual,  the  church  interprets 
each  to  every  one  of  us.  It  inspires  us  with  discontent  for  what 
we  are  and  have,  and  with  aspiration  to  desire  and  attain  the 
higher  and  better  thing  revealed. 

This  it  does  by  giving  us  a  vision  of  the  worthiest  things 
and  by  getting  us  to  look  up  to  them  and  reach  out  after  them 
in  worship.  For  worship  is  worth-ship.  It  is  the  aspiration  of 
the  human  for  the  divine.  But  to  inspire  us  with  it,  the  church 
must  interpret  human  life  and  conditions  as  they  actually  are. 
It  must  begin  by  having  and  giving  an  intelligent  and  sym- 
pathetic understanding  of  what  now  is.  There  is  little  use  of 
telling  any  of  us  what  we  ought  to  be,  without  first  giving  us 
to  understand  that  the  church  and  the  preacher  know  how  it  is 
with  us  now  and  here. 

It  is  because  people  fail  to  feel  that  the  church  has  to  do 
with  what  now  most  concerns  them,  with  where  they  now  are, 
with  how  they  are  to  do  in  this  world,  that  religion  seems  irre- 
levant to  them,  seems  to  be  something  out  of  their  reach  or  for- 
eign to  .them,  seems  to  be  something  thev  can  get  along  without, 
ftt  least  in  their  present  emergencies  and  daily  tasks. 

A  coal-cart  teamster  once  drew  his  team  up  to  the  curb- 
stone in  order  to  hail  me  as  I  passed,  with  this  question :  "Are 
you  the  man  who  spoke  about  religion  on  the  streets  yesterday?" 
When  I  admitted  that  I  had  done  so,  he  remarked,  '^ell,  it  is 
a  good  thing  to  bring  religion  outdoors."  It  surprised  him  to 
find  it  there.  Out  in  the  real  world,  where  he  lived,  on  the 
streets  in  which  he  earned  his  living,  religion  had  not  seemed 
to  belong,  but  it  seemed  more  real  to  him  for  being  there.  To 
make  religion  real  then,  the  church  must  root  it  on  the  common 
earth,  however  heaven-high  it  holds  aloft  the  divine  ideal.  In 
local  surveys  of  actual  conditions,  village  improvement  and  town 
planning  the  church  should  take  its  own  part.  Only  when  we 
mortals  get  the  idea  that  religion  belongs  out  in  the  open,  under 
the  stars,  on  the  green  earth,  will  it  be  the  real,  living,  tangible 
thing  to  us,  like  everything  else  that  lives  and  grows,  above, 
about,  within  us. 


24  THE    EEGISTEE 

2.  The  Church  also  stands  between  life  and  livelihood.  It 
has  ever  placed  the  sanctity  of  religion  upon  each  individual  life. 
It  has  hedged  about  every  life,  of  man,  woman  and  child  with 
a  sacredness  which  God  Almighty  protects  and  man  disregards 
at  his  peril.  Even,  the  unborn  babe  has  rights  which  the  mother 
is  bound  to  respect,  since  religion  made  infanticide  a  crime. 

But  too  much  and  too  long  the  Church  has  left  livelihood 
alone,  until  many  ways  by  which  we  earn  our  living  make  "it  dif- 
ficult and  sometimes  impossible  to  live  the  religious  life.  Ways 
of  liveliliood  must  therefore  be  made  at  least  compatible  with 
and  not  destructive  of  the  "Way  of  Life,"  if  the  Church  is  to 
get  and  keep  people  in  it.  Therefore  commerce  and  trade,  con- 
ditions of  labor,  safeguarding  women's  work  and  children's 
right  to  play  and  learn,  and  the  relations  between  employers 
and  employes  must  be  invested  with  a  religious  ideal.  People 
must  be  convicted  of  their  economic  sins,  must  be  brought  to 
industrial  repentance,  must  be  converted  and  become  Christian 
in  their  business  and  work-a-day  lives  if  religion  is  to  be  a  real 
part  of  every  one's  life. 

If  Christianity  does  not  or  cannot  interpret  itself  in  the 
terms  of  economic  values  and  in  the  terms  of  industrial  rela- 
tionships, then  it  is  not  and  cannot  be  the  religion  for  an  in- 
dustrial age.  But  it  is  so  interpreting  itself  as  never  before. 
It  has  created  the  prevailing  discontent  with  lower  conditions. 
It  has  inspired  the  demand  for  higher  standards  of  living.  And 
it  will  not  cease  until  our  way  of  making  a  living  is  not  only 
consistent  with,  but  tributary  to  the  Way  of  Life. 

This  means  that  it  is  the  religious  duty  of  the  Church  to 
take  and  impart  an  interest  in  making  farming  more  profitable, 
the  country  school  more  effective,  the  roads  better,  the  farm- 
houses healthier  and  more  convenient,  the  family  life  on  the 
farm  and  in  the  rural  town  happier  and  cheerier,  the  private 
and  public  recreation  and  amusements  more  attractive  and 
wholesome.  Thus  only  will  the  countryside  hold  its  young  peo- 
ple and  retain  its  population.  Thus  only  will  farming  and  the 
business  of  the  country  town  be  kept  prosperous.  Thus  only 
will  the  Church  itself  prosper. 

3.  Again  the  Church  stands  between  the  one  and  the 
many,  to  make  the  interest  of  each  one  the  concern  of  all, 
and  the  common  interests  the  concern  of  each.  This  needs 
to  be  done  especially  in  the  country.  Farm  life  isolates.  It 
is  easier  to  detach  one's  self  and  live  to  one's  self  in  the  country 
than  in  the  city.  But  the  detached  individual,  the  detached 
family,  the  detached  community,  the  detached  nationality,  are 


THE    EEGMSTER  25 

always  in  danger.  The}^  are  in  danger  not  only  of  being  selfish, 
but  of  losing  interest  in  themselves  and  their  own  progress. 
As  we  mingle  with  one  another  we  gain  self-respect,  ambition, 
public  spirit,  and  become  more  normal.  One  person  is  no  per- 
son. Life  is  made  up  of  its  relationships.  Every  one  of  us 
is  for  the  most  part  what  others  have  made  us.  The  com- 
munity makes  the  citizen,  and  just  as  surely  shapes  the  child. 

So  also  the  citizen  helps  make  the  community  what  it  is. 
One  class  helps  another  and  yet  is  helped  by  it.  Trade  makes 
the  town,  yet  the  town  makes  the  trade.  Those  who  think  only 
of  building  up  their  trade  and  let  the  community — its  school 
and  Church,  its  health  and  recreation — run  down,  are  taking 
care  of  their  own  interest  with  one  hand,  while  they  are  pulling 
the  ground  out  from  under  them  with  the  other  hand. 

The  old  Bible  is  right  therefore  in  proclaiming,  "No  man 
liveth  unto  himself."  It  follows  therefore  that  it  is  neither 
enterprising  nor  public-spirited,  neither  to  our  own  interests 
nor  to  those  of  our  town  or  neighborhood  to  say,  "I  am  in 
business  for  myself,"  "I  can  do  what  I  please  with  my  own." 

Eeligion  -strikes  the  balance  between  each  one's  duty  to 
himself  and  to  others,  each  one's  self-interest  and  interest  in 
others.  It  identifies  them.  So  the  Church,  especially  in  the 
country,  should  inspire  the  community  spirit,  should  interpret 
the  ways  in  which  each  of  its  members,  and  all  of  them  to- 
gether, can  promote  the  prosperity  and  pleasure,  the  peace  and 
progress  of  the  community.  If  the  communty  is  to  be  for  the 
Church,  the  Church  must  be  for  the  community. 

This  lays  upon  the  churches  the  duty  of  thinking  more  of 
their  communities  than  of  themselves.  The  Church  should  think 
less  of  building  itself  up  out  of  the  community  than  of  building 
the  community  up  out  of  itself. 

This  means  that  where  there  are  too  many  churches  in 
any  one  community'-,  some  of  them  should  sacrifice  themselves 
by  joining  with  others  to  make  fewer  and  stronger  churches. 
This  they  should  do  not  only  for  the  sake  of  the  community, 
but  quite  as  much  for  the  sake  of  the  common  cause  which 
they  profess  to  serve.  Why  should  there  not  be  community 
church  buildings  and  community  church  memberships,  con- 
stituting only  so  many  church  centers  as  can  be  strong  and 
can  serve  the  community  best?  If  they  cannot  unite  to  wor- 
ship together,  or  to  confess  one  common  creed,  or  form  a 
single  organization,  why  cannot  all  the  churches  of  a  com- 
munity federate  to  do  together  the  things  which  the  people 
need,  and  which  the  churches  working  apart  can  neither  fur- 


26  THE    EEGISTER 

nish  nor  secure?  Thus  only  in  many  a  town  and  neighbor- 
hood can  good  schools  be  sustained,  clean  and  attractive  amuse- 
ments be  provided,  a  happy  advancing  social  life  be  promoted — 
all  of  which  are  as  tributary  to  religion  as  religion  should  be 
tributary  to  them. 

4.  Last  of  all,  the  Church  stands  between  personal  re- 
ligion and  local  government,  between  piety  and  politics,  to 
mediate  between  them ;  not  so  much  to  keep  the  peace,  because 
there  ought  often  to  be  war,  but  to  make  piety  express  itself 
in  politics,  to  bring  personal  religion  to  the  protection  and  pro- 
motion of  the  local  government.  The  divorce  between  them  is 
fatal  to  each.  The  Church  can  no  more  succeed  if  the  local 
government  fails  than  it  can  succeed  if  the  Church  fails.  They 
stand  and  rise,  or  fall  together. 

Neither  country  churches  nor  country  communities  succeed 
unless  they  help  each  other  to  the  success  which  only  team- 
work can  bring.  Politics  is  as  sacred  as  religion,  because  it 
should  be  a  part  of  religion  itself.  But  we  have  been  talking 
of  "dirty  politics,"  as  though  taking  part  in  government  was 
itself  defiling.  It  is  because  we  have  only  taken  part  in  party 
politics,  instead  of  government  itself,  that  all  our  local  gov- 
ernments have  so  long  been  inefficient,  if  not  corrupt.  It  is 
because  we  have  thus  let  dirty  men  rule  and  ruin  our  politics. 
It  is  because  clean  men  do  not  fulfil  their  citizenship. 

There  needs  to  be  a  religious  revival  of  civic  patriotism. 
The  churches  can  stir  it  up,  or  pray  it  down,  without  being 
partisan.  They  have  a  right  to  be  thus  patriotic.  Their  min- 
isters have  the  right  and  duty  to  be  statesmanlike. 

Of  course,  it  will  cost  a  cross  for  the  churches  to  be  and 
do  all  this.  There  will  be  some  temporary  loss,  but  greater 
permanent  gain.  But  if  they  take  not  up  their  cross — their 
cross  of  civic,  social,  industrial  self-denial — they  can  neither 
follow  nor  be  worthy  of  their  Master:  If  they  are  not  willing 
thus  to  lose  their  life,  they  cannot  find  it.  Until  they  bear 
their  cross  they  will  not  wear  their  crown. 

Liberty  H.  Bailey,  as  quoted  in  The  Survey  magazine  from 
Eural  Manhood,  thus  sums  it  all  up: 

In  some  great  day 
The  Country  Church 
Will  find  its  voice 
And  it  will  say: 


THE    EEGISTBR  37 

"1  stand  in  the  fields 

Where  the  wide  earth  yields 

Her  bounties  of  fruit  and  grain; 

Where  the  furrows  turn 

Till  the  plowshares  burn 

As  they  come  round  and  round  again; 

Where  the  workers  pray 

With  their  tools  all  day 

In  sunshine  and  shadow  and  rain. 

"And  I  bid  them  tell 

Of  the  crops  they  sell 

And  speak  of  the  work  they  have  done; 

I  speed  every  man 

In  his  hope  and  plan 

And  follow  his  day  with  the  sun; 

And  grasses  and  trees. 

The  birds  and  the  bees 

I  know  and  feel  ev'ry  one. 

"And  out  of  it  all 

As  the  seasons  fall 

I  build  my  great  temple  alway; 

I  point  to  the  skies 

But  my  footstone  lies 

In  the  commonplace  work  of  the  day; 

For  I  preach  the  worth 

Of  the  native  earth — 

To  love  and  to  work  is  to  pray."' 


28  THE    REGISTEE 

PASTOEAL  EVANGELISM. 

Benjamin  F.  Aldrich. 

The  shepherd  ministry  of  the  servant  of  God  is  vastly 
larger,  immeasurably  more  than  the  bringing  of  immediate  re- 
lief and  present  good  cheer  to  those  who  can  be  regarded  as 
members  of  his  flock.  His  calling  and  work  must  mean  to  some, 
and  ought  to  mean  in  greater  or  less  degree  to  all,  a  very  real 
touch  of  the  life  of  God  upon  their  lives.  The  almost  ap- 
palling fact  is  that  every  true  minister  of  Christ  must  stand 
to  some  people  for  God.  A  warrant  for  this  staggering  assump- 
tion is  found  in  the  fact  that  the  message  came  to  a  man  trained 
and  disciplined  in  the  greatest  university  then  known,  and 
trained  also  out  in  the  loneliness  of  the  mountain  of  God,  that 
"He  (your  brother)  will  be  to  you  for  a  mouth  and  you  will  be 
to  Him  for  God."  We  are  also  told  that  a  man  shall  be  "A 
hiding  place  from  the  storm."  This  is  the  great  silencing  and 
humbling  fact  of  our  ministry  as  pastors,  that  we  are  to  be  some 
people  as  God,  bringing  to  them  out  of  our  personal  associations 
and  contact  and  relationships,  the  truth  of  God,  the  righteous- 
ness of  God,  the  love  of  God  and  the  real  impact  of  the  life  of 
God,  and  herein  is  the  deep  secret  of  our  Evangelism  as  Pastors. 

1.  This  must  be  so  in  the  ordinary  ministries  and  daily 
life  of  the  pastor,  the  house-to-house  visitation,  the  occasional 
call  on  the  sick  or  distressed,  the  moment  of  striking  hands  and 
exchange  of  glances  in  the  place  of  business,  the  mix-up  on  the 
gymnasium  floor,  the  walk  over  country  fields,  and  all  personal 
contacts  socially  and  otherwise.  In  this  ordinary,  every-day 
touch  and  go,  and  common  give  and  take  experience  there  should 
be  some  deeper  and  inore  vital  influence  than  that  which  shows 
upon  the  surface.  This  deeper  something  need  not  always  be 
spoken,  but  it  must  he  ii  the  ministry  is  true  to  its  high  calling. 
There  must  be  daily  and  hourly  and  momently  the  real  touch 
of  the  life  enabled  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  that  touch  must 
be  felt  and  known  as  an  invitation  to  higher  planes  and  wider 
ranges  of  being  where  the  personality  comes  to  its  best  in  the 
fellowship  of  the  divine.  The  personal  fellowship  of  the  pastor 
with  his  people  should  focus  the  thought,  clarify  the  vision, 
strengthen  the  purpose  and  crystallize  the  will  for  the  things  of 
God. 

2.  There  are  situations  in  which  God  Himself  has  opened 
the  door  of  the  heart  of  that  one  to  whom  evangelistic  appeal 
comes  naturally  from  the  pastor,  and  the  pastor  has  failed  ut- 


THE    REGISTEE  -^9 

terly  to  catch  the  far-reaching  significance  of  his  ministry  unless 
he  quietly  enters  that  door  into  the  deep  sanctities  of  the  soul 
which,  in  this  condition,  may  receive  untold  treasures  out  of  the 
divine  opulence,  which  perhaps  it  will  never  be  prepared  to  re- 
ceive again.  It  is  a  wonderful  thing,  and  yet  not  so  wonderful 
in  the  light  of  our  faith  in  the  over-brooding  watchcare  and 
love,  that  when  a  soul  has  received  upon  itself  the  downward 
stroke  of  an  unknown  power  and  little  understood  providence,  it 
does  not  cry  out  in  rebellion,  but  in  the  darkness  and  in  its 
prostration  only  pleads  for  light  and  help.  The  pastor  rises  to 
his  full  opportunity  only  when  he  recognizes  the  door  of  ca- 
lamity, so  dark  on  this  side,  as  a  door  full  of  opportunity,  glow- 
ing with  light  and  life,  leading  into  higher  life,  and  broader 
experience,  and  increasing  power  for  real  constructive  work  in 
God's  kingdom  upon  the  earth.  A  mother  has  lost  a  single  child 
of  her  heart  and  will  never  have  another  one  given  to  her  in 
this  life,  but  she  is  led  into  a  beautiful  service  of  teaching  a 
class  of  little  children,  or  superintending  the  Junior  Endeavor, 
or  of  gathering  through  the  cradle  roll  a  multitude  of  little 
children  whose  sweet  innocent  faces  become  to  her  more  than 
models  for  a  Eaphael  or  Murillo  glory  of  angels.  A  man  has 
lost  out  of  his  pulsing  companionship  a  manly  son  and  the 
great  void  in  his  life  can  be  filled  by  an  impulse  to  serve  men 
in  the  spirit  of  Christ  in  the  name  of  that  son.  A  strong  man 
can  feel  a  growing  business  enterprise,  in  which  he  has  planted 
the  best  strength  of  his  life,  fall  down  about  his  head  like  a 
house  of  cards,  and  discover  out  of  this  calamity  the  great  and 
abiding  significance  of  the  Spirit.  When  a  man  has  slipped  and 
fallen,  and  is  utterly  cast  down,  and  has  arisen  again  with  a 
wound  so  deep  that  if  it  ever  heals  it  will  heal  with  a  scar,  he 
may  be  made  to  see  that  this  experience  may  be  utilized  in  the 
power  of  God  to  save  scores  and  hundreds  of  others  from  the 
poignancy  from  that  same  experience.  One  who  has  disregarded 
the  fundamental  loyalties  about  home,  and  childhood,  and  com- 
munity welfare,  and  great  religious  forces  of  the  world,  may  in 
a  time  in  which  by  his  own  action  he  has  isolated  himself  from 
all  these  great  helpful  things,  be  brought  to  see  clearly  their 
vital  power,  and  their  essential  significance  to  anything  that 
can  be  called  real  life. 

3.  The  whole  parish  organization  in  its  Bible  school  and 
choirs  and  clubs  and  guilds  may  be  used  as  various  means  of 
specializing  among  the  various  ages  and  various  capacities  in 
the  developing  of  character  which  may  come  to  its  best  in  Christ- 
likeness.     Blessed  is  the  church  which  has  a  choir  master  who 


30  THE    EEGISTER 

will  co-operate  with  the  pastor  in  these  things,  putting  prayer 
and  devotion  and  real  evangelistic  appeal  in  the  training  for 
public  worship,  and  in  putting  forth  the  results  of  that  train- 
ing in  a  real  leadership  of  the  congregation  in  the  spirit  of  de- 
votion. And  the  pastor  who  neglects  his  opportu4ity  to  reveal 
this  sense  of  the  meaning  ,of  sacred  music  in  the  rehearsal  and 
m  the  public  services  has  lost  a  distinct  opportunity  which  is  far 
more  significant  than  any  evangelistic  sermon  which  he  may 
otherwise  preach  from  a  public  platform.  Even  in  the  organized 
and  supervised  play  of  children  and  young  people,  without  deal- 
ing out  homilies  and  drawing  morals,  but  just  as  a  simple  ex- 
ample of  Christlike  virility  and  manliness,  he  can  emphasize 
the  truth  of  the  sacredness  of  the  body,  and  the  necessity  for  its 
cleanliness  and  strength  and  steadiness  as  a  house  for  the  in- 
dwelling of  God's  Spirit.  No  matter  at  what  wide  ranges  the 
pastor  may  come  in  contact  with  any  of  his  people  the  thought 
paths,  the  ideal  paths,  the  motive  paths,  all  should  lead  certainly 
up  to  Christ  as  a  master  of  men  and  the  Savior  of  the  world. 

4.  The  pastor  must  be  wise  to  bring  in  this  personal  rela- 
tionship, either  by  word  or  personal  influence,  the  message  that 
shall  be  understood,  as  well  as  needed,  by  the  person  to  whom 
his  life  makes  its  appeal.  When  Paul  talked  to  the  Jews  he 
strongly  emphasized  the  Hebrew  prophecies  which  Christ  was 
fulfilling,  and  traced  Hebrew  history  with  Christ  as  its  cli- 
macteric expression.  When  he  talked  with  the  Athenians  on 
Mars  Hill  he  mentioned  neither  Hebrew  prophecy  nor  Hebrew 
history,  but  went  direct  to  the  Athenian  mind  with  regard  to 
their  honest  worship  of  the  unknown  Cod,  and  the  great  funda- 
mental teaching  of  one  of  their  own  poets.  The  most  important 
part  of  the  pastor's  relationship  to  his  people  is  that  of  finding 
common  ground  with  the  one  with  whom  he  is  to  deal,  so  that 
from  this  common  ground  he  may  find  a  point  of  departure  to 
the  higher  truths,  and  the  deeper  experiences,  and  the  broader 
ranges  of  life  into  which  that  person  has  not  yet  entered.  He 
must  know  how  to  tell  the  greatest  truths  of  the  universe,  give 
exposition  of  the  profoundest  experiences  of  life,  point  out  the 
superlative  ideals  of  the  spirit  in  the  language  of  the  previous 
experience  of  the  one  with  whom  his  life  has  come  into  close 
relationship.  For  this  superlative  task  the  pastor's  life  must 
be  saturated  with  the  Gospel,  and  energized  by  the  Spirit  of 
Christ.    In  his  very  silences  Christ  must  speak  through  him. 


THE    EEGISTEE  31 

THE  HYMNODY  OF  EVANGELISM. 
H.  A.  Smith. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  the  typical  evangelistic  hymn 
came  not  from  the  Methodist  revivals  of  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  with  the  Wesleys  as  chief  singers,  but  rather 
from  the  Church  of  England  under  the  inspiration  of  a  woman 
hymn  writer  and  her  crowning  hymn,  "Just  as  I  am  without 
one  plea.''  Many  Wesley  hymns  were  objective,  stolid  and 
combative,  written  in  an  age  of  tremendous  religious  upheaval, 
when  hymn  singing  meant  outshouting  a  rival  band  or  a  roister- 
ing crowd  of  tin  can  serenaders,  when  "Ye  servants  of  God, 
your  Master  proclaim,"  was  used  to  break  new  ground,  a  fore- 
runner of  the  Word  itself,  a  two-edged  sword  in  church  con- 
troversy. 

The  lay  evangelism  of  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury produced  the  so-called  "Gospel  Hymns,"  hymns  of  re- 
pentance and  the  call  of  the  Christ,  songs  of  surrender  and 
consecration.    Look  at  this  list : 

Charlotte  Elliot — "Just  as  I  am" 
Frances  Havergal — "Take  my  life  and  let  it  be" 
Cecil  Alexander — "Jesus  calls  us  o'er  the  tumult" 
P.  P.  Bliss — "Let  the  lower  lights  be  burning" 
Annie  Hawks" — I  need  Thee  every  hour" 
Fanny  Crosby — "Jesus,  keep  me  near  the  cross" 
Elizabeth  Clephane — "There  were  ninety  and  nine" 
Some  one  has  raised  the  question;  is  the  Gospel  Song  a 
true   hymn?     A  hymn,   according  to    St.   Augustine   and   all 
church  men  since  his  day,  is  a  poem  in  praise  or  prayer  to 
God,  to  be  sung  in  public  assembly,  by  all  the  people.     God 
Himself  is  the  ultimate  objective  point,  not  some  hearer,  some 
sinner,  as  in  "Why  do  you  tarry,  my  brother  ?"    And  this  brings 
us  to  the  seeming  weakness  of  our  present  day  hymn  singing. 
It  is  morbid,  introspective,  spineless.    There  is  too  much  stock 
taking  of  sins,  too  much  turning  of  the  eyes  inward.     Let  us 
rather  look  up  to  God  in  hymns  of  praise  and  look  out  to  man 
in  hymns  of  fellowship.     The  old  responsive  readings  were  too 
largely  of  the  penitential  sort,  meditations  of  an  intimate  na- 
ture, not  outstanding  festal  Psalms  and  selected  doxologies  and 
votive  songs.     Let  the  note  of  praise,  of  trust,  of  ultimate  tri- 
umph ring  strong  and  true  in  all  public  worship,  in  the  hymn 
singing,  in  the  Bible  readings,  in  the  prayers. 

Gospel  Hymns  have  come  to  stay,  they  have  a  distinct  mis- 


33  THE    REGISTER 

sion  in  winning  lives  to  Christ.  Some  are  strong  and  reasonable 
both  as  to  words  and  music  and  there  is  the  ubiquitous  "re- 
frain" that  will  swing  them  into  popularity  everywhere.  How- 
ever as  a  class  they  are  unsuited  to  a  growing  Church,  for  they 
deal  with  one  phase  only  of  Christian  experience,  namely  con- 
version, or  they  whisk  one  away  to  heaven.  There  is  no  in- 
termediate ground,  no  growth  in  the  graces  of  the  spirit,  no 
unfolding  life. 

Are  you,  my  reader,  using  a  book  in  your  church  service, 
left  by  some  good  evangelist  after  his  series  of  meetings,  using 
it  for  the  nurturing  of  your  young  converts,  when  they  ought 
to  be  getting  better  food?  And  shame  on  the  irreverent  spirit  of 
the  "hippity  hop"  hymn  tune.  On  a  recent  Sunday  in  one  of  our 
prominent  Bible  schools  the  boys  and  girls  were  stepping  off  the 
"tango"  to  the  rhythm  of  the  last  hymn.  Beware  of  the  gusto 
with  which  children  sing  certain  catchy  tunes,  or  the  enthusiasm 
that  pervades  great  audiences  in  the  singing  of  certain  revival 
hymns.  Little  of  it  is  spiritual  rapture,  it  is  mere  physical 
exhilaration.  It  is  often  said  that  the  mission  of  congregational 
singing  is  to  have  everybody  sing  and  sing  heartily,  and  yet 
hundreds  of  "enraptured  souls"  sing  popular  hymns  without  the 
slightest  thought  of  worship.  It  is  rather  the  enjoyment  one 
feels  in  marching  down  the  street  to  a  brass  band. 

Both  hymns  and  hymn  tunes  are  too  full  of  cheap  senti- 
ment these  days.  They  are  sugary,  they  are  disgustingly  fa- 
miliar. They  treat  sacred  subjects  with  callous  intimacy.  I 
have  heard  great  audiences  sing  "I  love  Him,  I  love  Him,"  to 
the  tune  of  "Old  Black  Joe,"  until  I  could  stand  it  no  longer, 
and  I  marched  my  choir  children  out  of  hearing  of  such  lan- 
guishing, con  amore  singing.  Go  slow  on  the  hymns  you  an- 
nounce as  your  evangel.  Read  carefully  through  every  hymn 
you  purpose  using  in  Sunday  school  or  Church.  See  that  it 
does  not  overstate  the  case.  And  if  there  are  fragile  hymns  of 
intensive  make  up  that  are  favorites,  take  them  to  the  quiet 
of  your  own  chamber  as  meditation  and  prayers,  do  not  parade 
them  in  public  assembly.  "0  Jesus,  Thou  art  standing,"  belongs 
anywhere  than  at  the  beginning  of  an  evening  service,  when  late 
comers  are  tramping  in,  when  there  is  confusion,  and  when  the 
atmosphere  of  worship  is  still  in  the  forming.  Some  hymns 
are  good  square  timbers,  made  to  "rough  it"  and  "fill  in"  until 
the  "babble  of  life's  angry  voices  dies  in  hushed  stillness,"  and 
one  stands  in  the  presence  of  God  Himself. 


